The Time Machine: who's who, timeline and places
Everyone in The Time Machine, what happens when, and where, without spoilers: tell us how far you have read and we show only what you already know.
- The Time TravellerAn inventive host who argues that a machine can travel through time and claims experimental proof.First seen in chapter 1
- The PsychologistA guest who questions whether people can move through time.First seen in chapter 1
- The Medical ManA guest who questions the Time Traveller’s argument about movement through time.First seen in chapter 1
- FilbyA guest who rejects the Time Traveller’s argument about time.First seen in chapter 1
- The narratorA listener who recalls doubts about the machine and attends the Time Traveller’s next dinner gathering.First seen in chapter 3
- EloiSmall, gentle people who welcome the traveller with flowers and a meal of fruit.First seen in chapter 5
- WeenaA surface dweller whom the traveler rescues from drowning, gaining her affection and companionship.First seen in chapter 8
- MorlocksPale human creatures who live below ground and share the world with the surface dwellers.First seen in chapter 8
- Chapter 1
The Time Traveller argues that time is a fourth dimension and claims experimental proof of travel through it.
- Chapter 2
A small machine disappears when the Psychologist presses its lever, and the Time Traveller reveals a larger machine.
- Chapter 3
The Time Traveller arrives dirty and injured, eats dinner, and asks his skeptical guests to hear his story.
- Chapter 4
The traveller speeds through changing days and seasons before stopping in an unfamiliar garden during a hailstorm.
- Chapter 5
Small, friendly people welcome the traveller with flowers and fruit, but their simple questions disappoint him.
- Chapter 6
The traveller explores ruins and communal buildings, proposing an explanation of human decline that he explicitly calls mistaken.
- Chapter 7
The traveller discovers his machine is missing and finds signs suggesting it is inside the sphinx’s pedestal.
- Chapter 8
The traveler rescues Weena and discovers that the surface dwellers share their world with humans living underground.
- Chapter 9
The narrator descends into the Morlocks’ world, finds machinery and meat, and escapes their attacks without any matches.
- Chapter 10
The Time Traveller leads Weena toward the Palace of Green Porcelain and concludes that the Morlocks eat the Eloi.
- Chapter 11
Inside the ruined museum, the narrator finds an iron bar, working matches, and camphor.
- Chapter 12
Morlocks attack in the woods, a forest fire spreads, and Weena disappears.
- Chapter 13
The narrator enters the sphinx’s open pedestal, fights the Morlocks, and escapes on his recovered machine.
- Chapter 14
The traveller moves farther into the future, encountering giant crab-like creatures and an almost lifeless, freezing earth.
- Chapter 15
The Time Traveller reverses through time and returns to his laboratory, where familiar surroundings make him question his experience.
- Chapter 16
The Time Traveller prepares another journey, disappears with his machine, and has not returned after three years.
- Chapter 17
The narrator imagines possible destinations for the absent traveller and finds comfort in two dried flowers.
Hidden until you have read that far.
- The laboratoryA room the Time Traveller visits before returning to show his guests an experiment.First seen in chapter 1
- White SphinxA sphinx with a hollow bronze pedestal where the traveller suspects his missing machine is hidden.First seen in chapter 7
- UnderworldThe underground world where another human species lives, reached through deep shafts.First seen in chapter 8
- Palace of Green PorcelainA palace the narrator spots during a long walk before exploring underground.First seen in chapter 9

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